Almond milk

I really hate cow's milk. I just think it is nasty. Almond milk, however, is delicious! The few that I've tried from the store were all sort of thin and watery and some of them were pretty grainy, so I decided to try making my own. Turns out that it is way better. With this recipe you can decide how thick you want it. If you use 2 cups of water the result is something close to 2% milk, 2 1/2 cups is something like 1%, and 3 cups is more like skim milk. I like my almond milk to be more versatile so I don't flavor it, but you could easily add a splash of vanilla. 

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds (unsalted with skins on)

2-3 cups water (plus more for soaking)

2 dates, pitted

Directions:

Place almonds in a large bowl and cover with a large amount of water (so that there is an extra inch of water on top of almonds). Soak uncovered overnight. If you aren't making the almond milk right when you wake up in the morning then dump out the water and replace with fresh water. After they are done soaking, drain and rinse the almonds. They should be sorta plump and squishy at this point. Dump the almonds and the two dates into a blender and cover with between 2 and 3 cups of water, depending on your desired thickness of milk. Blend for 2-4 minutes, or until the almonds are completely broken down and the water has turned opaque and white. Strain the mixture through a good, fine strainer (coffee filters work well, a thin kitchen towel works well, cheese cloth was a nightmare though). Lightly press and prod the solids left in the strainer to get more milk out. Let it sit until the solids are pretty dry. Transfer the milk to a glass jar and refrigerate. The solids you have left can be dried in the oven and crumbled into yogurt/cereal/oatmeal/ice cream.

**There is a product called a "nut bag" (hahaha, jokes) that you can buy that apparently strains the solids out perfectly without getting any grit into the milk. That would be great, but why would you buy that when you can use a coffee filter?